There is a strong desire on the part of law enforcement, military organizations and others to increase the protection provided by protective systems, such as body armor. The demands placed on such protective systems are high. For example, wearers of body armor encounter a variety of different threats, such as hand guns, commercial and hand-made knives, ice picks, needles and others. Although some protective systems have been developed to counter these threats, the systems do not meet other requirements of weight and/or flexibility. For example, protective vests including large metal or ceramic plates may provide protection against likely threats, but are typically heavy and inflexible.
One protective vest that is commercially available from Highmark in the United Kingdom includes a plurality of aluminum tiles that are butted together and adhered to a supporting fabric, such as a woven polyester fabric. The close spacing and inflexibility of the metal tiles makes this vest unacceptable to some users because it is too heavy and stiff for comfortable wear as other than an outer vest or protective garment, and is not suitable for concealable use.
Other protective articles are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,254,383; 5,198,280; 5,196,252; and 5,185,195, in which a plurality of planar bodies, such as small metallic pieces, are attached to fibrous layers. Planar bodies on one or more fibrous layers may overlap and provide resistance to penetrating objects. As with other armors of this type, the described protective garments were not accepted commercially because of their high weight and inflexibility.
The inventor is also aware of a glove that was developed for installing razor wire. The glove included a leather base material and had a plurality of metallic staples attached in the palm area of the glove. The staples were intended to protect the wearer's hand from slashing cuts of the razor wire.